Temple Stay

This weekend I finally went to a Temple Stay which I had been hoping to do a long time ago. My friend Ashleigh and I went together. We went to Gyeongju which is awesome spot to see all the cherry blossoms. It was a gorgeous, jacketless day on Saturday. We proceeded to take a what was supposed to be 40 minute bus ride to the temple, however, because of traffic it was more like an hour and a half. We were given clothes and a minbok room. Then we had dinner. Dinner was typical Korean food like rice vegetables, kimchi, and soup. Then we had a chanting service. the chants were in Korean, so it was hard to follow their chanting. However, they did give the English translation so we could know what they were saying. They also taught us the basic bow. We did this bow so many times while we were there. After chanting came Sunmudo training. This temple specializes in sunmudo. Sunmudo is a kind of Zen martial arts which is really cool. It was a little rough, making us do many crunches right in the very beginning. I've been sore..my legs, arms, and stomach ever since the training. But I enjoyed it. It's all about getting your mind, spirit, and body to work together. After sunmudo we had some free time. then it was a 10 pm lights out. I can't remember the last time I went to bed at 10. But it was probably good for our 4 am wake up call. Sleeping was minbok style- on the floor. Floors are not as comfortable as they should be. Next morning at 4 am we were woken by a chanting monk. Due to a misunderstanding, we missed the morning chanting service. Usually for missing this service, you must do 3,000 bows which I guess can take about 6 hours. The monks, however, did not force this bowing on us one night temple stayers. We had sitting meditation and then a walking meditation. On Sundays, breakfast is a special meal called Barugongyang. There is no talking involved and it is very systematic. You must eat EVERYTHING. And you clean your bowls and stuff with a piece of kimchi and water. If it is not clean enough you have to drink the dirty water. This explanation is oversimplifying what went on. The point is to meditate and not to waste. We had a small break afte the meal. We had some tea and conversation with a Ninja monk from France. He is not a full-blown monk and never will be. He came to the temple to study Sunmudo. Now he is studying the Buddhism part of the temple. When he goes back to France, he wants to start a Zen Sunmudo center. It was cool because he answered a lot fo our questions about the daily life at the temple and how he got to be there. Then we were given some archery lessons. As soon as I picked up the bow and arrow I knew I was going to be horrible at the archery. However, it was cool to try. My friend Ashleigh got some cool pictures. (My camera is currently broken). We then went wandering around the temple, exploring and enjoying being out in nature. By this time, tourists had been coming so there was a lot more going on in and around the temple. Finally we had lunch which was similar to dinner except because it was Sunday, we were given rice cake and watermelon. All in all, it was good. I think, however, if I were to go again, I would opt for a weekday as that is more the normal schedule. Also, I might opt to go for more than just overnight to be able to fully engage in all the happenings at the temple.